April 27, 2010

Empathy for one's own race neurally distinct from empathy from mankind

In a rare neuroscience look at racial minorities, the study shows that African-Americans showed greater empathy for African-Americans facing adversity – in this case for victims of Hurricane Katrina – than Caucasians demonstrated for Caucasian-Americans in pain.

The more African-Americans identified as African-American the more likely they were to show greater empathic preference for African-Americans, the study showed.

NeuroImage doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.03.025

Neural basis of extraordinary empathy and altruistic motivation

Vani A. Mathur et al.

Abstract

A central evolutionary challenge for social groups is uniting a heterogeneous set of individuals towards common goals. One means by which social groups form and endure is by endowing group members with extraordinary prosocial proclivities, such as ingroup love, towards other group members. Here we examined the neural basis of extraordinary empathy and altruistic motivation in African-American and Caucasian-American individuals using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Our results indicate that empathy for ingroup members is neurally distinct from empathy for humankind, more generally. People showed greater response within anterior cingulate cortex and bilateral insula when observing the suffering of others, but African-American individuals additionally recruit medial prefrontal cortex when observing the suffering of members of their own social group. Moreover, neural activity within medial prefrontal cortex in response to pain expressed by ingroup relative to outgroup members predicted greater empathy and altruistic motivation for one's ingroup, suggesting that neurocognitive processes associated with self identity underlie extraordinary empathy and altruistic motivation for members of one's own social group. Taken together, our findings reveal distinct neural mechanisms of empathy and altruistic motivation in an intergroup context and may serve as a foundation for future research investigating the neural bases of intergroup prosociality, more broadly construed.

This is a really cool study. I'd think that people would be inclined to feel more strongly for people who they can identify with- cultural and racial identity, for example. The feeling that someone is "like me" makes it harder for us to distance ourselves from the fact that another human being is in pain, and makes us put ourselves in our shoes.

The genetic basis for altruism (the perpetuation of the selfish gene rather than of the individual) could have something to do with this too- we feel greater empathy for people who look like us because that's an indication that they share a higher percentage of genetic material.

Caucasian people may have shown less reaction because 'white' isn't a cultural identity. They'd likely lack the sense of community and communal interest that races with more of a group mindset. I doubt that it means they (or any of the other ethnicities tested) are less empathetic overall.

Thanks for drawing attention to such an interesting area of research! I recently started up a commentary/discussion blog on human nature- I think that this is really relevant. Is it ok if I link to you and include a little bit of discussion on the topic?

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